BlackBerry Picks Fight With Facebook

Paul Rubens - March 7, 2018 - 06:40 AM

The Canadian company says Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instragram have all copied its technology.

(CCM) — BlackBerry has declared war on Facebook and its WhatsApp and Instragram services, accusing it of copying its technology and some of BlackBerry Messenger's features, according to a Reuters report.

The Canadian company has filed a patent infringement lawsuit, claiming that Facebook has used "a number of the innovative security, user interface, and functionality enhancing features" that it developed for BlackBerry Messenger. The lawsuit has been filed following years of negotiation to settle BlackBerry's claims out of court.

But Facebook has robustly rejected BlackBerry's claims and appears to accuse BlackBerry of being nothing more than a would-be patent troll. "Blackberry’s suit sadly reflects the current state of its messaging business," Paul Grewal, Facebook's deputy general counsel said. "Having abandoned its efforts to innovate, Blackberry is now looking to tax the innovation of others."

BlackBerry has adopted a general strategy of litigation over patent infringement to generate revenue, and launched a suite against Nokia in 2017 alleging infringement of 3G and 4G wireless technology patents. That case is still pending in federal court in Delaware, according to the report.

More recently chip-maker Qualcomm agreed to make a $940 million payment to the company to resolve a royalty payment dispute.